In West Sumatra

Well, I've made it and have eventually found my way around this little province. Not that I've done too much traveling though, my plan was to find somewhere nice and quiet and curl up for a few days and do some reading, catch up on my sleep, and just relax.

I caught my flight Saturday morning to Padang, about an hour and a half long trip, and got talking to the man sitting next to me on the way. He is the minister of agriculture for West Sumatra, and went through my travel book with me, pointing out the good spots and the bad spots. Once in Padang he offered me a ride up to Bukittinggi, about 1 1/2 hours north-east of Padang, and we were greeted by a member of his staff and his driver at the airport.

The architecture here is amazing. I had heard about the bull-like shaped rooves of the Minang Kabau (Winning/Victorious Bull) region, but only expected to find it in a few select tourist villages. But it's everywhere; small houses, mosques, goverment buildings, all in various states of beauty and/ or disrepair.

So, to get back to the point, on the way up to Bukittinggi we stopped at an enormous restaurant, built in typical Minang Kabau architecture, and had a typical Padang-style lunch, which basically means they set out small portions of about 15 different dishes and you take what you want. At the end of the meal they tally up the amount missing and you pay. It actually seemed to be very complicated for the waiter to add everything up, but you'd think they'd be used to it by now.

Padang is famous for its spicy food, and while I haven't had any problems yet I must admit I've stayed away from the food laden in sambal (there was chicken with literally mountains of sambal on it - I don't think my tongue would survive).

We stopped off in Padangpanjang on the way up to Bukittinggi and dropped Pak Edwin (the minister) off, and then the driver and his staff (Pak Edi)took me the rest of the way. What really struck me on the way up were the unbelievably long lines for Benzine at every gas station we passed. BBM is a hot topic at the moment in Indonesia; President SBY hiked up the tax on gas, which has massively affected the poor in all regions of Indonesia, but in Java I have yet to see the impact of BBM to this extent. It is a widely talked about 'fact' that the Javanese are the privileged folk of Indonesia, and these sorts of things only seem to emphasise that.

Anyhoo, just found out I may not have brought enough cash to pay the exorbitant rates (+/- $2 per hour instead of the usual $0.50 - this is the only internet cafe in town) if I keep talking on the phone (oma called) and talking to my neighbours, so I had better get a bit more focused.

In Bukittinggi I checked myself into a hotel and looked forward to some down time. I went out searching for some food and found a little warung that served Acehnese-style mie that was out of this world (I went back three times). Downstairs was a 'pool hall' consisting of two run down tables, so I spent an hour or so playing and making friends with the locals. One of the guys I was playing with, Harmen, asked if I wanted to go up to the Pasar Atas (Upper Market) to see the saturday night crowd (jalan-jalan, or going around/ traveling is a word that's hard to translate. The best attempt may be hanging out, but then with implied traveling; going to somewhere to jalan-jalan is possible). So off we went, first on a little tour of the town, and then on an hour-long search for gas. Everywhere we went people just laughed when we asked if they had any benzine left...unbelievable and one of the main reasons I decided not to rent a bike while I'm here.

Finally we got back to Pasar Atas, and found that all the people who had been there had already gone home. Without the crowds there wasn't really much to do, so after buying some fresh peanuts I headed home.

The next morning I had set up to go out to the local horse races with Harmen again, but as soon as we got there it started pouring rain, so we ducked into a warung and had some coffee and a good, long chat with the other people collected in there to keep from getting wet. Met a couple of interesting people, one in particular, a guy named Ill (I won't even try to write his full name here, but part of it is ill), who had managed to escape the poverty of his family and neighbours and had worked quite a bit overseas in various hotels. He'd lived in Leiden for a month and then moved on to Montreal, where he had just been offered a three-year contract to extend. He spoke english very well, and really wanted to practice with me, and I got the feeling everyone else around us felt quite left out, which meant I spent half the time translating what we were saying - an odd arrangement given that the guy I was talking to WAS Indonesian.

By 18:00, which was the time I had agreed to meet Harmen again, I was really starting to resent the attention and the obligation to actually make plans, and as we walked up the road I spotted someone I had studied with in Yogya (it really is a small world) and welcomed the opportunity to escape my Indonesian host. So I spent the evening talking with Tim, two German friends of his, and 4 Belgians, who I had seen earlier at the horse races.

This morning I decided that Bukittinggi was far too interested in befriending me and headed up to Maninjau with the Germans to experrience the peace and quiet of this ancient volcano lake. We got a ride up from one of the guys from the Bintang Bar, which organises tours up Mt. Merapi (different Mt. Merapi than the one in Yogya), and various hiking trips through ngerai, the canyon in Bukittinggi.

We were brought to a little hotel on the outskirts of Maninjau and the landscape was absolutely breathtaking. No noise, no tourists, no tv, nothing but a little cafe hut and some rooms. We went swimming a bit in the naturally heated lake and ate some odd version of tacos, which were really deep-fried (of course) pastries filled with either banana,potatoes,or veggies.

The Germans decided to return to Bukittinggi for the evening to try to climb Mt. Merapi, and I'm still here in Maninjau. I didn't want to join the climb because not only do I want to relax for a bit, but two days ago it erupted and reports say it's not safe toclimb. I don't feel like climbing halfway up to the monitoring station only to find out we have to go back down again.

So, here I am, ready to enjoy the clean air, clean water, and peace and quiet of Maninjau. If you try to call and can't get through, be patient,the phone signals are only available occasionally it seems. This afternoon I couldn't call out at all and now I have maximum signal.

So,that's it for now.